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Salary and wage increases for 2009

Despite calls to try to reduce job losses, it seems some unions are not going to be shy with their demands.

A national protected strike in the road freight and logistics sector is set for March 15, the South African Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Satawu) said in a statement on Monday.

The strike -- with regard to the wage dispute declared on January 28 -- would commence at midnight "and will be indefinite until our demands are satisfactorily met", Satawu said.

"The minimum wage remains very low and currently stands at R883,88 per week for drivers and at R579,16 per week for general workers."

Satawu has demanded a minimum wage of R6 000 per month for drivers and a minimum wage of R3 000 per month for general workersfull story from M&G here

That would be something like a 50% increase for drivers!

Whilst I like the idea of attracting a better calibre of driver to the industry (as a road user myself I would really appreciate that), I suspect this is going to be the wrong year to expect dramatic wage increases.

Really a lot to ask. Short sighted. If they were really to win that the consequences Retrenched, out of business, higher basic food costs, fuel costs changed (be it marginal) but would have a round house impact

I did think that myself but didnt comment (decided i've been to contraversial this week ). I think the possibilty of doing the opposite exists. An influx of drivers from other industry ( I might consider the position ) including people with no experience. Certainly rather a driver than security guards etc. All these new people on the roads.. Could make things worse..

I believe pay scales can affect the caliber of who you attract to an industry. It can also affect a person's self-image, something which I have seen in my own organisation.

Let me toss out a line of thought here.

Drivers aren't the only cost in a transport company. In fact, they might be one of the smaller costs. Accidents in particular cost money, which increases insurance premiums - and there have been a lot more accidents in the transport industry.

Attracting a more conscientious driver to the wheel by paying more to the driver could in the medium term reduce costs.

The flies in the ointment would be the LRA which would make getting rid of poor drivers a little tricky, and the current economic climate where there is serious pressure at the short term goal level.

Perhaps a change that can't be achieved in one leap, but it wouldn't be a bad thing to strive towards.

On salary increases for the year, I'm expecting to see more of this:

Chris de Vos, the general secretary of the United Transport and Allied Trade Union, said yesterday that Transnet management had informed the union that the transport parastatal needed to save R4.9 billion between now and March - the end of its financial year.

"If that is not the case, they would need to talk to us about no wage increase versus retrenchments," said De Vos.full story from Business Report here

Despite calls to try to reduce job losses, it seems some unions are not going to be shy with their demands.

That would be something like a 50% increase for drivers!

Whilst I like the idea of attracting a better calibre of driver to the industry (as a road user myself I would really appreciate that), I suspect this is going to be the wrong year to expect dramatic wage increases.

What do you think?

"The minimum wage remains very low and currently stands at R883,88 per week for drivers and at R579,16 per week for general workers."

Well...there seems to be quite an in parity in the wages paid in the different sectors of industry e.g. In Iron and Steel we pay R995.60 for a driver and R811.20 for a general worker as a minimum and we must not forget that workers talk to one another over a beer and these things come to the fore .
To them it does not make any sense that in one industry you get x rands and in another y rands for the same job.
I think in our industry we can prepare for about 10%